Category: The Flying Elbow

There’s certainly no denying that social media plays a large role in today’s professional wrestling scene. It’s a valuable tool for advancing storyline, promotion and just overall interaction with fans, being used to gauge interest when it comes to what’s currently happening with the product. The WWE can take into account the opinions of the WWE Universe, allowing them to take a sharp left on a current angle even when plans call for it to veer to the right. Sometimes it can correct mistakes or bad booking decisions, but then you have times when the company should just stick...

Last night, I had the opportunity to speak with Ring Of Honor star Flip Gordon to promote tonight’s Best In The World pay-per-view, discussing a number of topics including how serving in the military prepared him for professional wrestling, getting signed to a company with a television program so quick in his career, what makes Ring Of Honor stand apart from places like WWE and a lot more. These days it seems like a lot more pro wrestlers are coming from a military background. What about being in the service prepared you for stepping into the ring? “I would...

Sharing your personal opinion on anything happening in the world of professional wrestling these days inevitably will lead to you getting some heat, whether it be from fans, peers or if you’re a performer, no matter the subject matter. Especially in this day and age of social media where any uninformed “Tom, Dick and Harry” will read it and feel the need to tell you why you’re “wrong”. Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past couple of weeks, there’s been a lot of controversy surrounding comments made by independent wrestler Daniel Parker, who shared a pretty...

Now that I’ve had a few weeks to let everything from WrestleMania weekend settle into my brain, I’ve found myself reflecting more on this year’s Hall Of Fame ceremony. Arguably one of my favorite nights of the year, the 2017 class didn’t disappoint in-terms of great moments such as Ricky Morton breaking down as he thanked Robert Gibson, Beth Phoenix unselfishly paying tribute to Edge, DDP’s inspiring speech and Kurt Angle’s milk-soaked celebration among others. Every candidate was worthy this year in my book and it got me thinking way ahead to possibilities for next year’s class. We all...

For years and years, whenever I heard the term “fade to black”, my brain was always instantaneously filled with memories of the one and only, Jay-Z. Anyone close to me knows that he’s by far my favorite musician of all-time and when he was set to retire from making music in 2003, a concert DVD surrounding the release of his album “The Black Album” also hit stores, which was entitled “Fade To Black”. Today when I think of that term, only one man comes to mind and that’s NXT newcomer, Aleister Black. Born in Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands on...

Say I was to ask you to think of some WWE Superstars that came from ‘The Land of the Rising Sun’, Japan. Most assuredly, the most common names you or any WWE fan came up with would likely be Hall Of Famer Mr. Fuji, Tajiri, maybe Taka Michinoku or Sho Funaki and more recently, Shinsuke Nakamura, Asuka and Akira Tozawa. Maybe even a less remembered man named Kenzo Suzuki, but one that is often forgotten about would be that of ‘The Modern Day Kamikaze’, ‘The White Angel’, Hakushi. Born Kensuki Shinzaki in Tokushima, Japan on December 2nd, 1966, Hakushi...

The saying goes, “I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so”, however when it comes to me it’s the opposite. I like it, enjoy it, you could even say I love it. When the WWE announced the return of the brand-split last summer, it was met mostly with excitement and led to a lot of discussion among members of the WWE Universe about who would go where and what would happen with the titles. It would be very easy to look back at the Draft portion of the split and talk about who should...

It seems these days that anyone who has ever watched at least one episode of WWE programming likes to play fantasy booker, opinions coming out of the woodwork ranging from “good” to “you couldn’t even book a flight”. One of the hot topics over the past couple of weeks has been obviously the road to WrestleMania 33 on April 2nd, especially surrounding the expected main event, Brock Lesnar challenging Goldberg for the WWE Universal Title. Since Goldberg’s quick-win over Kevin Owens at Fastlane to gain the championship, people have been more than vocal with their displeasure, especially on social media....

When it comes to the debate of who the greatest professional wrestler/WWE Superstar of all-time is, it’s very likely you could poll upwards of fifty people and get a multitude of different answers. The most common names to the question would undoubtedly be Shawn Michaels, ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, The Rock, Bret Hart, John Cena, Triple H and possibly even Chris Jericho, with the likelihood of a modern-day “super-mark” throwing out a name like Roman Reigns (he may be in the conversation one day, but let’s be honest…not yet). I can’t quite argue against any...

Over the course of WWE and professional wrestling history, we’ve seen a handful of Superstar that have a Middle Eastern heritage such as Shawn Daivari, current Cruiserweight Division Superstars Ariya Daivari and Mustafa Ali, as well as the most notable of them all, WWE Hall Of Famer and former WWF Champion The Iron Sheik (despite portraying an Arab-American character, Muhammad Hassan, real name Mark Copani, is actually of Italian descent). Absent however, has been the presence of any female performers that come from this culture, that is until now in the form of one NXT Superstar that I believe...

There’s certainly no denying that the unfortunate injury to Seth Rollins’ surgically repaired right knee last week on WWE Monday Night RAW was a pretty solid gut-punch not only to the man himself, but to members of the WWE Universe around the world. It was almost like receiving a Christmas present, unwrapping it and then finding out it is something you’ve been wanting, however it’s damaged. At least that’s how I felt as the high of finally having Samoa Joe make his debut on WWE’s main roster was quickly deflated with the news of Seth’s injury. While early reports are...

At this stage in my life where I’m in my early thirties and essentially being a literal lifelong wrestling fan, I’ve seen my fair share of legends lost over my tenure of watching the product. Right now, some of the men that had the greatest impact on me during my formative years of viewing are starting to reach that age (if they were lucky enough to get this far) where health is going to decline and ultimately they reach the inevitable end birthed to all of us. Over the past couple of years we’ve seen it happen to Hall...

Like many of you out there reading, I am just as excited for WrestleMania 33 as anybody else is and definitely more-so than I was for WrestleMania 32. A rash of injuries caused the WWE to change plans for last year’s card, but this year’s edition could be everything 32 was supposed to be and then some. Everybody’s got their own fantasy line-ups for the event on April 2nd in Orlando, Florida’s Citrus Bowl, but sometimes there’s very little logic behind them and lots of favoritism shown. I’ve taken the liberty of combining some of the most strongly rumored...

If you’re a long-time WWE fan then it’s no revelation to you when I say that having a great entrance is a very crucial part of being a top Superstar and in some cases, it can actually push a performer on the brink of the main event over the top. When I was younger, I was a heavy rap and hip-hop fanatic, but nowadays I find that the entire scene outside of say, J.Cole, is pretty bleak at-best. For various reasons I have also accrued a pretty solid collection of entrance songs from the WWE because let’s face it, some...

2016 has certainly been a year of big changes for the WWE with the brand-split taking place in July. The shockwaves of the WWE’s Draft were not exclusive to the main roster, as NXT lost even more talent following a round of call-ups prior to and just after WrestleMania 32. WWE’s third brand has since undergone a major roster transition and unquestionably the biggest impact of any newcomer (outside of Shinsuke Nakamura) has been that of an 18-year ring veteran, the only and only “Glorious One” himself, Bobby Roode. Born on New Year’s Day, 1977 in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada,...

“No $%*#, Sherlock” is generally my standard answer to the question in the title. Either that or pretending like my mind has been blown and everything about my world is crashing down. I’m a smart ass, have been my whole life. Anybody that doesn’t watch the WWE (or any professional wrestling for that matter) always has something to say to fans of the product, that question being the most common. I’m 31 years old, not 8. Just because I watch wrestling doesn’t make me less of a human being than you. The knowledge I’ve gained over the years for...

It was back on July 24th, 2015 when ‘The Immortal’ WWE Hall Of Famer Hulk Hogan was terminated by the company after racially charged remarks he made became public. He was ostracized by WWE and some fans, seemingly stricken from the record books and even his Hall Of Fame spot was left in question. The man who told us to train, say our prayers, eat our vitamins and that it was “4 Life” was once again on the outs with the company he helped build, the business he helped to mold. Did he deserve it? That’s really tough to...

Last night, I had the opportunity to speak with WWE Hall Of Famer Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts, as he heads out this weekend on the next leg of his Unspoken Word Tour for stops in Bangor, Maine on October 29th and then on October 30th at Empire in Portland, Maine for ‘Jake The Snake’s Halloween Party’. Below are some highlights from my conversation with Jake, covering parts of his career, recovery from addiction, DDP Yoga and venture into the world of a touring stand-up performer. For the full interview, be sure to check out our newest episode of the Top Of The Morning Podcast available on Saturday morning via YouTube, SoundCloud and iTunes: When you were coming up through territories like Mid-South, Mid-Atlantic, Georgia Championship Wrestling and WCCW, were you aware of the name you were making for yourself and was New York (WWF) always the goal? “Uh, no it was never the goal. I think my goals were pretty simple, it was just have a good match. Then two of them in a row, then three of them and four of them. I loved wrestling, the passion was just so deep and I just fell in love with it. There’s no greater feeling than performing in a live venue and fans are right there with you, you’re able to play the game with them. It’s such a great...

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